'Donald Trump' of Ireland hits pause on Belle Haven plan

Published 10:55 pm, Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Greenwich attorney Thomas Heagney, standing in front of the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals, asks for and is granted a continuance in the matter of the controversial home construction project at 38 Bush Ave. in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich that is linked to Irish developer Sean Dunne, Wednesday night, Feb. 23, 2011, at Greenwich Town Hall. less

Greenwich attorney Thomas Heagney, standing in front of the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals, asks for and is granted a continuance in the matter of the controversial home construction project at ... more

Eli Gamson, a cameraman working for RTE, Irish Public Television, videotapes the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Wednesday night, Feb. 23, 2011. Gamson and other members of the Irish media were on hand as the controversial home construction project at 38 Bush Ave. in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich that is linked to Irish developer Sean Dunne, was on the docket. less

Eli Gamson, a cameraman working for RTE, Irish Public Television, videotapes the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Wednesday night, Feb. 23, 2011. Gamson and other members of the Irish ... more

Irish developer Sean Dunne puts his hand up to avoid having his photo taken on Field Point Road, Greenwich, Dec. 8, 2010.

Irish developer Sean Dunne puts his hand up to avoid having his photo taken on Field Point Road, Greenwich, Dec. 8, 2010.

Photo: File Photo

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The renovation of 38 Bush Ave. in Belle Haven, as seen in early December 2010, is shown stopped.

The renovation of 38 Bush Ave. in Belle Haven, as seen in early December 2010, is shown stopped.

Photo: File Photo

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Irish developer Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea, a former gossip columnist, are shown st the Sunday Independent/Irish Nationwide Person of the Year Awards in this undated photo. (Photo by Julien Behal)

Irish developer Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea, a former gossip columnist, are shown st the Sunday Independent/Irish Nationwide Person of the Year Awards in this undated photo. (Photo by Julien Behal)

Photo: Contributed Photo, Greenwich Time

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'Donald Trump' of Ireland hits pause on Belle Haven plan

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How do you say "to lawyer up" in Gaelic?

With the specter of being sued by his neighbors over a tear-down project in Belle Haven looming, Irish real estate tycoon Sean Dunne is taking pause over the future of a property in the neighborhood listed as his home.

A proposal to build a two-story house and carport at 38 Bush Ave., the subject of a much-anticipated hearing of the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals Wednesday night, is on hold.

Greenwich lawyer Thomas Heagney, whose name appears on the property deed as owner, requested a continuance of the controversial application so he could confer with an attorney for several neighbors, including the Belle Haven Land Co.

"We think that might bear fruit and make this application moot," Heagney told the board. "My client is looking at a number of options."

Heagney would not reveal the identity of his client in an interview with Greenwich Time, other than to say it is not Dunne. He sidestepped a question on whether his client is Gayle Killilea Dunne, a former gossip columnist for The Sunday Independent in Ireland who is Dunne's wife.

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To the disappointment of a gaggle of Irish journalists from two newspapers and RTE television, the Baron of Ballsbridge and man who fancied himself the Donald Trump of Ireland was a no-show at the hearing.

"Half of Ireland is here," fellow land use lawyer Don Marchand muttered to Heagney.

Dunne's neighbors are up in arms over the state of the classic 19th-century Victorian, which has been reduced to a mere skeleton in the same patrician enclave that is home to Diana Ross and at least two billionaires.

"If I had my druthers, we should reset the clock and go back nine months," said Richard Case, a retired IBM Corp. executive who lives next door to the Bush Avenue house.

Case was not part of the group of neighbors who hired Greenwich lawyer James Fulton, who did not attend the hearing.

"Negotiations could, in fact, result in a solution to the problem," Case said. "Then, if not, all I can see is state court actions, and that will take months, if not years."

Dunne vehemently denied ownership of the property during a testy exchange with a reporter and photographer in December outside 421 Field Point Road, the address of a $7 million Mediterranean-style villa where town records show him living and where neighbors say he is currently renting.

But Dunne's home address is listed as 38 Bush Ave. with the Secretary of the State's Office, where his real estate development firm Mountbrook USA is on file with the commercial recording division as a limited liability company.

"We may not go forward with this particular design," Heagney told Greenwich Time. "My client is looking at what their other option may be, which is to build the house that has already been approved, versus this alternate design."

A permit from the town authorized an addition for a garage, kitchen, family room, study, terrace, a new master bedroom suite and third-floor bathrooms.

Building inspectors for the town issued a stop-work order for the project Oct. 1 and required the contractor to apply for a demolition permit, for which there is a mandatory 45-day waiting period because the house was built before 1940.

Case opposes the original remodeling plan as well.

"I think what was originally permitted was not acceptable," Case said.

The applicant is seeking a variance from the town's floor area ratio regulations on building size and on side yard setback requirements.

The deed on file with the town previously listed the property's owner as Philip Teplen, a New York City lawyer specializing in immigration issues and estate planning.

Teplen's office address, on the 57th floor of the Empire State Building, matches that of Dunne's development company, as shown on file with the secretary of the state.

But in a bizarre falling-out between attorney and client, Gayle Killilea Dunne accused Teplen in a December lawsuit of stiffing her out of $500,000 she set aside in an escrow account under his control for a real estate investment she never made.

"Philip has been relieved of his duty," Heagney said told Greenwich Time.

With the Irish economy in tatters, Sean Dunne decamped for a new life across the pond in late 2010, leaving behind what news reports have characterized as a portfolio of sour real estate investments and distressed loans that were transferred off the books of leading banks to a government-run repository known as he National Asset Management Agency.

NAMA has a history of seizing developers' assets.

Staff writer Neil Vigdor can be reached at neil.vigdor@scni.com or at 203-625-4436.